Homes

'Plant doctor' has all the answers

Book that tackles most common questions

Wim Vander Zalm tends to plants at Art Knapp's Plantland in Port Coquitlam. He has now condensed the best of his gardening know-how into a book called Just Ask Wim! Down-to-Earth Gardening Answers.

Photograph by: Ric Ernst
, Vancouver Sun

Answering gardening questions is something Wim Vander Zalm has been doing pretty much all his life.

At 19, he was already in charge of one of the biggest garden centres in B.C. - the Art Knapps store that existed off Lougheed Highway in Burnaby and is now GardenWorks.

Vander Zalm is the owner of two other garden centres in the Lower Mainland, Art Knapp Plantland and Florist in Port Coquitlam, and the Urban Garden store in the heart of downtown Vancouver on Hornby Street.

Over the years, he became so good at answering gardening questions, most of which came from customers in his stores, he became known as the "plant doctor." For 15 years, he was the host of CKNW radio's Garden Talk program and more recently he has been answering questions for GardenWise and BC Home & Garden magazines.

So, it should probably come as no surprise, given that he has been the go-to-guy for many gardeners looking for solutions to their plant problems and advice on their gardening challenges, that he has now condensed the best of that knowledge into a book: Just Ask Wim! Down-to-Earth Gardening Answers (Harbour Publishing, $26.95).

The book contains 100-plus of the most asked gardening questions: What vegetables can I plant as a winter crop? How can I avoid bitter bolting lettuce?

When is the best time to cut back rhododendrons? How do I overwinter my geraniums and fuchsias? What fast-growing evergreen hedge will work for my narrow urban yard? How late can I plant spring-flowering bulbs? What should I do about the chafer infestation that is destroying my lawn? What fruit and vegetables grow best in patio pots? And on and on.

The book is beautifully designed and intelligently organized with more than 200 colour photographs, plus a complete month-by-month garden checklist at the front.

With chapters on pruning and pest management, herbs and lawns, trees and shrubs, perennials, annuals, hanging baskets and container gardening, there is plenty of information to get beginner gardeners off to a flying start and take seasoned gardeners to the next level of expertise.

The goal that permeates the whole book is the idea of taking gardeners through the seasons with the confidence of having the guidance of an expert gardener at their fingertips.

The son of former B.C. premier, Bill Vander Zalm, he traces his passion for gardening back to his childhood and the influence of his dad, also a knowledgeable garden expert and garden centre owner, and other members in his family engaged in horticulture.

"My love for gardening could also be because of a game I traditionally played whenever I was in the car with my dad.

"I would repeatedly ask him to name plants that I pointed to in the gardens as we passed, scrambling to find the next plant that just might stump him.

"Without a doubt, that silly occupation made me more observant of my surroundings year in and year out, giving me cause to evaluate how, why and when plants bloomed, yellowed, grew leaves, dropped leaves, were pruned and so much more. I was quietly being schooled about the horticultural world around me."

By 13, Vander Zalm, with the help of his school buddy, Cam, had built a 200-square-foot greenhouse in the backyard.

It is a little unusual to find a 13-year-old as industrious and entrepreneurial as Vander Zalm was, but owning his own greenhouse certainly gave him an early start in the horticulture business.

"I found it very rewarding, both mentally and financially, taking cuttings and propagating different types of plants, which I sold at my dad's garden centre," he says. Today, what excites him most is turning people on to gardening and giving them the information they need to become good gardeners.

"I have learned that most people want information to solve a problem but not the kind of technical language that makes their eyes start to glaze over."

Achieving success, says Vander Zalm, is often about getting the right cultivar of plant and making sure it is planted properly in the right place with the right soil.

For success with tomatoes, for example, he says he highly recommends growing at least one variety of cherry tomato, such as Sweet 100 and Sweet Million.

"There is something about popping a bite-sized tomato, bursting with fresh-off-the-vine flavour, right into your mouth.

Other tomato recommendations include Fantastic, Early Girl, Oregon Spring and Better Boy.

You will find equally sound advice on growing cucumbers, lettuce, zucchinis, and the whole range of fruits.

Herbs are always popular with gardeners and Vander Zalm has been right on the money over the past few years in targeting and catering to the gardener keen to grow all the most useful herbs.

So in the book, he has detailed advice about growing basil and sage and other popular herbs.

For flower gardeners, he gets straight to the heart of some key concerns, such as how to keep dahlia tubers alive and healthy over winter so they will perform flawlessly for another season.

And there is a great chapter on growing bulbs indoors, forcing them to bloom in mid-winter, as well as making impressive displays with amaryllis.

Perennials are close to my heart, so I appreciated the month-by-month guide to flowering perennials. I suspect beginner gardeners will also love this information as planting perennials to create a seamless sequence of blooms is one of gardening's biggest challenges.

Lawn care is becoming more and more controversial, partly because of the move away from use of high-nitrogen fertilizers along with water restrictions and the desire by many homeowners to find less labour-intensive alternatives to growing grass.

Vander Zalm gives sound advice for those wishing to do the work and maintain a lawn, but also offers a whole bunch of practical alternatives, such as growing brass buttons (Leptinella squalida) and white clover (Trifolium repens) as ground cover options.

Pruning is another hot topic, but in Just Ask Wim you get some very straightforward guidelines for pruning trees and shrubs that give gardeners the biggest challenge such as wisteria, hydrangeas, lilacs and roses.

When he sat down to write his book, Vander Zalm looked at a few other garden books and found that they were mostly written for people who already knew a lot about gardening. He recognized the gap where a lot of new gardeners find themselves, searching for basic information.

"Personally, if I wanted to learn about car engines, I wouldn't be looking for technical talk because I truly know nothing about them."

From that point, he set out to write about the most-asked gardening questions with solid, common-sense answers. I think he has done that well and in a way that will encourage more people to get their hands in the soil and discover the joy of gardening.

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